Police in Urbana, Illinois The Reverend Christopher Layden who is accused of selling cocaine from his church office and rectory. The 31-one-year old priest faces three criminal counts and has been suspended by the church.
Category: Criminal law
Italian comedienne Sabina Guzzanti is facing a criminal charge for a bad joke. In Italy, it is a crime to insult the Pope or “offending the honour of the sacred and inviolable person” . Guzzanti is accused of crossing the line between comedy and crime in saying that Pope Benedict XVI would go to Hell and be tormented by homosexual demons. The joke could cost her is a prison term of up to five years.
Continue reading “Crossing the Line Between Crime and Comedy: Italian Accused of Telling Joke About the Pope”
Just when you thought you had heard everything to worry about as a parent, Neil Havens Rodreick II comes along (pictured on the left). The 30-year-old sex offender was able to pose as a 12-year-old boy in Arizona schools for two years. He has been criminally charged. However, he is not unique. In England, James Chester, 22, posed as a teen schoolboy to have sex and eventually flee with a 13-year-old girl.
Prosecutors were heralded recently for their prosecution of James Ford Seale for the kidnapping of two black teenagers in Mississippi in 1964 that led to the deaths of Charles Eddie Moore and Henry Hezekiah Dee. The former klansman was tried over 40 years after the crime, but a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has ruled that the prosecution violated the five-year statute of limitations for such crimes.
Continue reading “Court Overturns James Ford Seale’s Conviction for 1964 Murders”
Russia seems intent on making itself and its leaders into cartoon caricatures of late. Thus, it should be no surprise that the Russians are actually fighting cartoon characters in court. Russian prosecutors have filed an action against the South Park series after “experts” concluded that it “bore signs of extremist activity.” The prosecutors are seeking to ban the program.
Continue reading “Russians Move Against South Park; Kenny in Hiding”
Police in Washington Park, Illinois are searching for a driver and passenger who ran down a bicyclist at a gas station, as shown on the video below.
Continue reading “Shock Video: Van Filmed as it Runs Over Bicylcist”
Saira Nusrat Bibi has become the latest victim in the barbaric cycle of arranged marriages and honor killings in Pakistan and other Middle Eastern countries. Forced into a marriage at age nine to a 45-year-old man, she had taken the extraordinary step to fighting for an annulment. She was winning in that effort, but (now 17) was denounced by many in the country as an heretic against Islam. Her parents have now killed her in the latest honor killing.
Continue reading “Honor Killing: Parents Kill Girl Who Sought Annulment After She was Forced to Marry 45-Year-Old Man — at Age 9”
New Jersey officials have been struggling to find the source of medical waste that has been washing up on its shores — closing various beaches. They now have the culprit: Dr. Thomas McFarland, who has reportedly confessed to the crimes.
Continue reading “Dentist Arrested for Dumping Needles and Medical Waste Off Jersey Shore”
The ongoing sage of suspended Nevada District Judge Elizabeth Halverson just got stranger. On Thursday night, her husband Edward Halverson, 49, was arrested and charged with attempted murder and battery her with a frying pan. He has a long criminal record. Judge Halverson was known to berate and ridicule her husband in court, referring to him as “Evil Ed.”
Continue reading “Nevada Judge Halverson Allegedly Attacked by Husband with Frying Pan”
Jordanian human rights advocates are fighting to raise awareness of not just the roughly two dozen honor killings in that country each year, but the fact that some of these killings are being falsely portrayed as motivated by religious values. Indeed, Jordan’s first female coroner, Israa Tawalbeh, has identified one 18-year-old girl named Maha who was killed by her brother when she refused to continue to work for him as a prostitute — he claimed to have killed her for his family’s honor.
Continue reading “Faith-Based Murder: Jordanian Activists Document False Honor Killing Claims”
In a controversial decision, California Superior Court Judge John S. Einhorn sentenced four friends involved in the death of professional surfer Emery Kauanui to relatively short sentences of between 90 and 349 days. All pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter. A fifth individual, Seth Cravens, is awaiting trial. The five men were called the Bird Rock Bandits and alleged by prosecutors to be a gang in LaJolla, California. In the meantime, his mother (shown with the surfer) has sued the Bird Rock Bandits, their parents, and the bar (where the fight began) in a wrongful death action.
Continue reading “The Bird Rock Bandits v. The “Flying Hawaiian”: Four High School Friends Sentenced in Killing of Professor Surfer Emery Kauanui”
It appears that all of those billions of dollars for Homeland Security has paid off. The Administration has nailed two Canadians on our shores and protected the nation from the Maple Leaf hoard. Jason Haist took a rather novel way to sneak into the country: he almost drowned himself. The man who tried to rescue him was also arrested. After being released from a hospital, Haist sits in own of our jails awaiting a hearing before an immigration judge.
Continue reading “Canadian Jet Ski Attack Foiled: U.S. Jails Canadian Drowning Victim and Rescuer”
This is what Texas Gov. Rick Perry seems to view a close call. He has said that he is still mulling over whether the stay an execution of Charles Dean Hood for 30 days after it was disclosed the his judge, former District Judge Verla Sue Holland, and his prosecutor, former Collin County District Attorney Tom O’Connell, at trial had an affair — and a hearing on the issue is currently scheduled for after his execution. Despite the compelling evidence of ménage à trial, the issue appears to still be undecided despite requests from twenty-two former federal and state judges and prosecutors calling for the stay.
There is a showdown brewing in Box Butte County, Nebraska. On one side are prosecutors has a standing case against a defendant and on the other is Val McCabe who just wants to stand. Val, and his brilliantly named wife Muffy Buckles, are suing the county for his leg back despite the prosecutors insistence that it is evidence being held by the Alliance Police Department.
Continue reading “No Leg to Stand On: Prosecutors Refuse to Give Back Prosthetic Leg of Shooting Victim”
Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has agreed to plead guilty to two obstruction of justice counts tied to his perjury as a witness on an affair with a former aide. He will also give up his law license, resign as mayor, and turn over his pension to the city.
Continue reading “Kwame Kilpatrick Pleads Guilty and Agrees to Jail Time for Obstruction”